Friday, May 12, 2006

Cornelia Funke

Amanda Craig interviews Cornelia Funke for the Times.Craig begins her article as follows: "Corneila Funke is so close to being the German J. K. Rowling that it would be easy to envy her. A former social worker whose gilt-blonde beauty is pure Rhinemaiden, her stories began to be published in Britain only when Barry Cunningham, the editor who discovered Harry Potter, picked them up four years ago. "

Craig discusses movie projects (Brendan Fraser comes up again), the death of Funke's husband this year, and the role of fantasy in Germany. Of the latter, Funke says:

"'Germans don’t write fantasy,' she says. 'I think in a way we are a little scared of our own tradition because we had the Fascists grab so many myths. I hope that the new generation will be able to grab them back and feel free to use them again — in a responsible way.'"